Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Council tax at Band D comes to £1,698. A town of 10,623 in East Lothian, Scotland.
Walking, cycling and public transport work well here: on the way to work, 25% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Health is a weak point: men here can expect to live to 76.8, women to 80.2. A median £207,800 buys a home here, 3.9 times what households in the East Lothian council area earn in a year. School results trail most towns: school leavers’ results beat 9% of Scottish towns.
Figures: commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy and incomes, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years. Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Prestonpans has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Prestonpans is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Prestonpans has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Prestonpans does most differently from other towns.
Historic Environment Scotland lists 30 buildings inside Prestonpans’s locality, 6 of them in the top category, and 3 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →30 listed buildings in Prestonpans, 6 of them in the top category.
Preston, Hamilton House, Including Boundary Walls, Doorway, Gatepiers, Gate and Railings: Photo: Renata · Public domain · Preston Tower and Dovecot: Photo: Tom Parnell · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Prestongrange Colliery, Hoffman Kiln: Photo: Linkogecko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · High Street, Town Hall: Photo: Alan Murray-Rust · CC BY-SA 2.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Prestonpans.
At the census, 6.8% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, above East Lothian’s towns (5.9%) but below Scotland’s towns (7.2%). 79% of people in Prestonpans rate their own health good or very good. Disability touches nearly a quarter of Prestonpans’ population.
| Census 2022 | Prestonpans | East Lothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 79% | 81% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.8% | 5.9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 24% | 23% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
Some 1,880 pupils attend Prestonpans’s two primaries and one secondary. Two of its 3 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preston Tower Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 620 | – |
| Preston Lodge High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,133 | D |
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 29% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Driving is how nearly three quarters of commuters got to work at the census. 29% of workers worked mainly from home, below both East Lothian’s towns (33%) and Scotland’s towns (31%). The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 2.9%. About 8% of its commuters stay in Prestonpans for work.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
57% of households own their home, below both East Lothian’s towns (66%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). No town in East Lothian costs less to buy into than Prestonpans, at £207,800, the lowest of 11. Private renters make up 7% of households.
Registers of Scotland data-zone sale prices · Scottish Government council tax · Scotland’s Census 2022 tenure · OGL · The Scottish median is our estimate from data-zone sales, brought to early-2025 prices.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Per 10,000 residents, Prestonpans counts 28 listed buildings, lower than East Lothian’s towns (85) yet higher than Scotland’s towns (22). The town’s listed buildings include Harlaw Hill House, With Stables and West Boundary Wall, Category A. At the top of the list, 6 are Category A and 11 Category B.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
One in ten residents are 15 to 24, close to East Lothian’s towns (10%) and below Scotland’s towns (12%). The 65-and-over age group makes up 16% of residents. The median resident of Prestonpans is 40.2 years old. Graduates make up 23% of adults.
53% women, 47% men
About 90 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Prestonpans | East Lothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 17% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 27% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 16% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 20% | 15% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 10% | 8.5% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 10% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 23% | 33% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · East Lothian and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Prestonpans. Best known first.
CastlePreston Towerin town
MuseumPrestongrange Mining Museumin town
CastleFa'side Castle2 km outside town, to the south
Garden · National Trust for ScotlandInveresk Lodge Garden2.8 km outside town, to the southwest
Historic houseCarberry Tower3.5 km outside town, to the southwest
Historic houseNewhailes House, Musselburgh4.5 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Town in East Lothian, Scotland
Prestonpans is a locality of 10,623 people, in the East Lothian council area. TownRatings uses National Records of Scotland’s 2022 localities as Scotland’s towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council area, so its figures cover the town itself. Localities split the big settlements into their towns, as ONS’s 2022 boundaries split conurbations in England and Wales.
Built from NRS geography and Census 2022
The nearest towns and villages, from National Records of Scotland’s 2022 localities. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prestonpans | 10,623 | — | — | A− | — | D |
| Cockenzie | 5,237 | 1.4 | — | B+ | — | C |
| Tranent | 12,235 | 1.5 | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Wallyford | 4,493 | 1.8 | — | B− | — | D |
| Musselburgh | 21,476 | 3 | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Ormiston | 2,587 | 3.3 | — | B | — | C− |
| Longniddry | 2,598 | 3.3 | — | C− | — | B |
| Dalkeith | 15,125 | 5.4 | — | B | — | C− |
No Scottish town has a Safety Grade or an overall grade yet: Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime. People: Census 2022. Miles: centre to centre.
GCSE results trail 91% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). Prestonpans has 3 state schools; places are handled by the local council.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £207,800, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 237th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Band D council tax in Prestonpans is £1,698 for 2026–27, less than in 89% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Sources: Scotland’s Census 2022 (National Records of Scotland), output areas summed to the NRS 2022 locality · Registers of Scotland house price statistics, medians and quartiles of residential sales by 2022 data zone, 2004 to 2025 (the 2023 to 2025 headline brought to early-2025 prices with each council’s medians) · Scottish Government, Council Tax by band 2026-27; Scottish Water charges 2026-27 · Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland (crimes, offences and clear-up rates by council area, 2016-17 to 2025-26); Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020v2 crime domain and SIMD crime indicators (2014/15, 2017/18), 2011 data zones with Census 2022 residents · ONS gross disposable household income by council (2022), scaled to household income on England and Wales’s councils, with Scotland’s Census 2022 households · DWP / ONS Claimant Count via Nomis (2022 data zones, January to August 2026), over residents aged 16 to 64 at Scotland’s Census 2022; council series since 2015 · Scottish Government school contact list (31 July 2026) and school summary statistics (pupil census, September 2025); School Information Dashboard leavers’ attainment by school, 2022-23 to 2024-25 (data.gov.scot) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.